Dr. Antonio (Tony) Alonso is currently Assistant Professor of Theology and Culture at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, where he also serves as the inaugural Director of Catholic Studies. Dr. Alonso works at the intersection of theology and culture, with a particular focus on worship and ritual practices. In 2019, he was awarded the Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award for new scholars for the best academic essay in the field of theology within the Roman Catholic tradition from the Catholic Theological Society of America for his essay "Listening for the Cry: Certeau Beyond Strategies and Tactics" (Modern Theology, 2017). Dr. Alonso's first book, Commodified Communion: Eucharist, Consumer Culture, and the Practice of Everyday Life (Fordham University Press, 2021), offers a theological account of contemporary consumerism and its relationship to the Eucharist. It was awarded the 2021 Hispanic Theological Initiative Book Prize, an award that recognizes the best book written by a junior Latinx scholar on theology or religion each year. His current research, funded by a Teacher-Scholar Vital Worship Grant from the Calvin Institute for Worship, focuses on the theological significance of the transformation of Catholic material culture in the wake of the Second Vatican Council's liturgical reforms. In addition to his scholarly work, Dr. Alonso is a Latin Grammy-nominated composer of sacred music. The author of over 200 published compositions and arrangements, he was commissioned to compose the responsorial psalm for the first Mass Pope Francis celebrated in the United States in 2015.

Dr. Michael Anthony DeAnda, a queer Tejano scholar-practitioner from El Paso, TX, is a professional lecturer in Game Design at DePaul University. He researches the intersections of games, queerness, and culture, considering the intimacies between LGBTQ and Latinaxo lived experiences and games. Using game design as research praxis, he develops games that draw comment on privileged structures, using intersectionality, queerness, and feminism as critical lenses. He earned a PhD in Technology and Humanities from Illinois Institute of Technology. Dr. DeAnda has published in Technical Communications Quarterly, The Journal of Popular Culture, The Video Game Art Reader, Queer Studies in Media, and Popular Culture and Widerscreens.

Taylor Alexis Baker is a writer from Harlem and an MFA student at City College- CUNY. She holds an Interdisciplinary SB in Digital Art/Creative Writing from The CUNY Graduate Center and an AAS in Animation from Kingsborough Community College. She wishes to pick apart Harlem with a mindful eye and through a Black woman’s ideology. An avid learner who considers herself part of the Christian faith, Baker is also an educator of all grades. Her hobbies include reading, digital art, and entrepreneurship.

Rev. Dr. Yvonne Martínez Thorne is founder and CEO of Cultivating Wholeness Counseling Associates. Located in Pennsylvania and Florida, her faith-based practice provides specialized services for ordained clergy and lay leaders.  She also provides secular and faith-based counseling and psychotherapy to people across faith, race, and culture. Rev. Dr. Martínez Thorne served as consultant for Area Ministry and Communications for the Philadelphia Baptist Association.  Her commitment to the church continues in her role as consultant to congregations, ecumenical judicatories, and Christian organizations seeking greater wholeness and wellness. She recently provided disaster relief to clergy and congregations traumatized by natural disasters in Puerto Rico and The Bahamas. She currently serves as faculty at Lexington Theological Seminary, where she offers courses on clergy wellness and on the importance of healthy boundaries in ministry.  Rev. Dr. Martínez Thorne holds an MDiv from Palmer Theological Seminary and an EdD in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University.  Rev. Martínez Thorne is ordained clergy of the American Baptist Churches USA. She is married to Rev. Dr. Leo S. Thorne, former associate general secretary for Mission Resource Development for the American Baptist Churches USA.   

Sharon Lee De La Cruz is a multi-disciplinary artist and activist from New York City. Her thought-provoking pieces address a range of issues related to tech, social justice, sexuality, and race. De La Cruz’s work ranges from comics, graffiti, and public-art murals to more recent explorations in interactive sculptures, animation, and coding. She holds a BFA from Cooper Union and an MPS from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. De La Cruz is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, Processing Foundation Fellowship and a Tin House Summer Workshop participant. She lives in New York City.

Rev. Dr. Orlando Crespo holds a Doctor of Ministry degree in Congregational Leadership from the New York Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colgate University. He has served as the National Director of InterVarsity Latino Fellowship since 2000 and is the author of Being Latino in Christ: Finding Wholeness in Your Ethnic Identity (InterVarsity Press, 2003). An ordained minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance since 2011, Dr. Crespo and his wife Maritza helped to plant New Life in the Bronx Church in 1998; he continues to serve there as the Associate Pastor and Children's Ministry Director. He is also active in several Latino Christian organizations including serving on the Board of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition and an Executive Leader of the Latino Leadership Circle in NYC.

Rev. Maritza Crespo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colgate University (1984) and became a licensed Massage Therapist in 2011. As a Church Planter, she has served as Worship Leader at New Life in the Bronx since 1998, and has been a member of the Urbana Missions Conference Worship Team in 2009 and many other worship teams over the years. Her passions are spending time with family, gardening, cooking from scratch, and staying in touch with friends she's had for decades.

Rev. Miluska (Milly) Aquije is many things. As an educator, a spiritual advisor, a mentor, and a Dreamer—among so much else—Rev. Aquije supports her community with a unique passion and vibrancy. Her current professional experience includes serving as the Discipleship Pastor with Reconcile Brooklyn and as the founder of Hoping Greatly, where she uplifts others through her story of resilience as an undocumented immigrant. She holds degrees from Nyack College and Hunter College, as well as being a licensed clergy with the Evangelical Covenant Church. Rev. Aquije has served church plants in youth ministry since 2005, has been active in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) campus ministry, and is co-founder as an IVCF alumni of The Mentor Movement. She worked in higher education administration at Hunter College, served as an enrollment manager, faculty, and youth seminary coordinator for City Seminary of New York (CSNY). As part of CSNY, she was a researcher with Dr. Maria Liu Wong & Dr. Geomon George on “Engaging the Present and Envisioning the Future: Leadership Development in an Urban Youth Seminary.” In her free time, she can be found catching up on anime, and coaching the next generation over a delicious NYC meal discovery. More about Rev. Aquije's journey can be found at hopinggreatly.com.

Hon. Dr. Sandra Leticia Salazar is a doctor who comes from humble beginnings and whose story is an example of what can be achieved through hard work and education. The daughter of a gardener and a domestic worker, Dr. Salazar was raised in a working-class family that instilled in her a commitment to faith, family, and community at an early age. she grew up attending the Apostolic Assembly church, a predominantly Latinx Pentecostal denomination in Culver City, CA. After graduating from the public school system, Dr. Salazar became the first in her family to attend college. She earned a BA in from Wellesley College, was a Research Fellow at the Mayo School of Health Sciences in Minnesota, and went on to attend Saint Louis University of Medicine, where she received a Doctorate in Medicine. Dr. Salazar completed her medical training in Los Angeles, where she currently works as a family physician, and is an active and dedicated member of her community. Her record of public service includes: serving on the medical advisory board of the California Community Foundation and volunteering with various community-based organizations, while also being a member of the local Kiwanis and the Norwalk Community Coalition. In 2011, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg appointed her to the State Bar Committee of Bar Examiners. Hon. Dr. Salazar was elected to represent Trustee Area 6 of the Cerritos Community College Board of Trustees and was sworn in on December 12, 2012; she was reelected in 2020.

Dr. Maricela M. Luján Maffey works with the County of Orange Health Care Agency, California Children’s Services, a program for children with Special Healthcare needs such as Cerebral Palsy, Prematurity, Congenital Heart Disease. She holds an MD (1990) from the University of California Irvine School of Medicine, where she also completed her residency in 1993. A member of the American Board of Pediatrics, with a CA State Medical License since 1991, Dr. Luján Maffey has served as a pediatrician in Santa Ana, California and has been in practice for more than 30 years. Her specialties are in Pediatrics; she was trained to meet the unique needs of infants, children, and adolescents through all of their developmental stages. Dr. Luján Maffey grew up in Orange County, CA and attended Apostolic Assembly, a predominantly Latinx Pentecostal denomination in Santa Ana, CA.

Prof. Dr. Lenny Lopez is Chief of Hospital Medicine and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. He is also Senior Faculty at the Disparities Solutions Center, Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. López is an internist trained at the Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), who completed the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Minority Health Policy at the Harvard School of Public Health and a Hospital Medicine fellowship at BWH. Dr. López joined the Mongan Institute for Health Policy (MIHP) in 2008 after his research fellowship in General Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School until 2015. With an ultimate goal of reducing healthcare disparities in cardiovascular disease and diabetes, his current research addresses issues relating to patient safety and language barriers, optimizing primary care clinical services for Latinos with cultural and linguistic barriers, and using health information technology to decrease disparities. A second line of research is investigating the epidemiology of acculturation among Latinos in the US and its impact on the prevalence and development of cardiovascular disease and Type II diabetes. This research will help inform how to better design clinical interventions for improving chronic disease management among Latinos. Finally, Dr. López also teaches medical students and residents, with lectures and preceptorships. Dr. López received his BA in Religious Studies (1994) and MD (2001) degrees from University of Pennsylvania, and completed his residency at Harvard Medical School, BWH (2004). He received MDiv (1999) and MPH (2005) degrees from Harvard University. With an ultimate goal of reducing healthcare disparities in cardiovascular disease and diabetes, Dr. Lopez's research addresses issues relating to patient safety and language barriers, optimizing primary care clinical services for Latinos with cultural and linguistic barriers, and using health information technology to decrease disparities. A second line of research is investigating the epidemiology of acculturation among Latinos in the US and its impact on the prevalence and development of cardiovascular disease and Type II diabetes. This research will help inform how to better design clinical interventions for improving chronic disease management among Latinos. Dr. Lopez's work is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIDDK) and the Harold Amos Faculty Development Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Past funders have included the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Aetna Foundation and the McKesson Foundation. Currently, Dr. Lopez serves as the Chief of Hospital Medicine at the UCSF - San Francisco VA Medical Center. In addition, he is a faculty member in the following research translational centers: The UCSF Center for the Study of Adversity and Cardiovascular Diseases (NURTURE Center) and the Kidney Health Research Collaborative. Dr. Lopez has been inducted as a Fellow of the American Heart Association and as a Senior Fellow of the Society of Hospital Medicine.

Dr. Ruth Behar was born in Havana, Cuba and grew up in New York. She holds a BA from the College of Letters at Wesleyan University, and MA and PhD degrees in Anthropology from Princeton University. As a cultural anthropologist, poet, writer for young people, teacher, and public speaker, Dr. Behar is known for the compassion she brings to her quest to understand the depth of the human experience. She has lived in Spain and Mexico, and returns often to Cuba to build bridges around culture, literature, and Jewish life. In her career as a cultural anthropologist, she has written books about her travels—Translated Woman, The Vulnerable Observer, An Island Called Home, and Traveling Heavy—and is also the author of a bilingual book of poetry, Everything I Kept/Todo lo que guardé. More recently, Dr. Behar has begun writing books for young people, and she won the Pura Belpré Author Medal for her debut middle-grade novel, Lucky Broken Girl. Her new middle-grade novel, Letters from Cuba, a Sydney Taylor Notable Book, is based on her grandmother’s escape from Poland to start a new life in Cuba on the eve of WWII. Her debut picture book, Tía Fortuna’s New Home, is forthcoming in 2022. Dr. Behar was the first Latina to win a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and has been named a “Great Immigrant” by the Carnegie Corporation. She has recently been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and is the Victor Haim Perera Collegiate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Marta Lucía Vargas is a poet and a teacher. She is a founding member and senior editor of Aster(ix) Journal, a literary transnational feminist arts journal, and co-founder of WILL: Women in Literature in Letters. Currently, she serves as Managing and Content Editor for HTI Open Plaza, an online platform within the Hispanic Theological Initiative. Her poetry and creative nonfiction works have appeared in various journals and anthologies, including So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion and Birth (Haymarket Books, 2023), The Lake Rises: poems to and for our bodies of water (Stockport Flats, 2013), and the chapbook For the Crowns of Your Head (Poets for Ayiti, 2010). Vargas has taught writing and literature at Hunter College and at New York Institute of Technology. She was the inaugural Poet-in-Residence for the Montclair Art Museum and serves as Poet-in-Residence for Bloomfield High School's What's Your Story program. Vargas holds an MFA in Poetry from Drew University and allocates her time with her family in South Orange, New Jersey, and New York City. 

Alicia Sosa-Provencio is an artist born and raised in New Mexico. As a graduate of The University of New Mexico, she is a former primary grade and art educator, though currently the stay-at-home parent of her 3 young boys. She is a passionate believer in the power of arts’ healing abilities and an advocate for neutralizing color across gender expectations. She is known for her use of bright colors in playful abstracts and cultural connections to her native New Mexico roots. She also has a unique series of Breastfeeding Virgen De Guadalupe paintings portraying Our Lady cradling and feeding the infant Jesus at the breast. She currently sells her original acrylic paintings, print reproductions and greeting cards in her online Etsy Shop.

Radhiyah Ayobami is Brooklyn-born with Southern roots. She holds a B.A. in Africana Studies from Brooklyn College, an MFA in Prose from Mills College, and has received awards from the New York Foundation of the Arts, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and a residency with the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She has been published in several anthologies and journals, including AGNI, Apogee, Aster(ix), and Tayo Literary Magazine. Some of her most enjoyable work has been facilitating workshops with pregnant teens, inmates, and elders. Her free time is spent listening to plants, going to her son's basketball games, and working on her first novel. Ayobami self-published her first book, the long amen (2019).

Joshua Robbins is the author of Praise Nothing (University of Arkansas Press, 2013), part of the Miller Williams Series in Poetry, and his recognitions include the James Wright Poetry Award, the New South Prize, selection for Best New Poets, and a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship in poetry from the Sewanee Writers' Conference. He received MFA in creative writing from the University of Oregon and a PhD in English from the University of Tennessee. Robbins is Associate Professor of English at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

Natalia Treviño is an immigrant from Mexico and the author of the poetry collections, VirginX (Finishing Line Press, 2018) and Lavando La Dirty Laundry (Mongrel Empire Press, 2014). She is a Professor of English and an affiliate Mexican American Studies faculty member at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio, Texas. She has won several awards for her writing including the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize, the Literary Award from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, and the Menada Literary Award at the Ditet e Naimit Poetry Festival in Macedonia. Recently, Lavando La Dirty Laundry was translated to Albanian and Macedonian and published in a dual-language edition in Macedonia through their National Ministry of Culture. Natalia graduated from The University of Texas at San Antonio with an MA in English and from the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s MFA program. Her publications appear in The Southern Poetry Anthology, Mirrors Beneath the Earth (Curbstone Press), Bordersenses, Borderlands Texas Poetry Review, Sugar House Review, The Taos Journal of Poetry and Art, and several other journals and anthologies.

Rev. Dr. Tito Madrazo is a Program Director in the Religion Division at Lilly Endowment Inc. Previously, he served as the founding director of the Hispanic-Latino/a Preaching Initiative at Duke Divinity School, and as a Missional Strategist in Duke's Hispanic House of Studies. Dr. Madrazo also pastored congregations in Texas and North Carolina for 18 years.

A native of Venezuela, Dr. Madrazo is a graduate of Baylor University, Gardner-Webb University, and Duke Divinity School. In addition to his academic and ministerial work in the United States, Madrazo has also taught extensively in Latin America. He recently published Predicadores: Hispanic Preaching and Immigrant Identity (Baylor University Press, 2021), an ethnographic exploration of the identity and preaching of first-generation, Protestant pastors in North Carolina.

Rev. Dr. Harold J. Recinos is professor of church and society at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. A cultural anthropologist, he specializes in work and ethnographic writing dealing with undocumented Central American migrants and the Salvadoran diaspora. He has published numerous articles, chapters in collections, and written major works in theology and culture, including ten collections of poetry. His most recent collections of poetry, all published by Resource Publications/Wipf & Stock, are: No Room (2020), Wading in the River (2021), After Dark (2021), The Days You Bring (2022)—nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in poetry—The Looking Glass (2023), Tell Somebody (2023), and The Place across the River (2024). Rev. Dr. Recinos’s poetry has also been featured in Anglican Theological Review, Weavings, Sojourners, Anabaptist Witness, The Arts, Afro-Hispanic Review, and Perspective, among others.

Felipe Emmanuel Agredano serves on the Academic Senate at East Los Angeles College, where he is faculty in Chicana/o Studies, Noncredit and Social Sciences Departments, and has lectured in the history of religion, political science, Chicana/o studies, LGBTQA+ courses and United States Citizenship. He holds a Master’s degree from Harvard University, dual Bachelor’s degrees from UC Berkeley in political science and ethnic studies, and is most proud of his Associates of Arts degree from East Los Angeles College. He often contributes to global stories on religion and politics for The Harvard Crimson, ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America, KCAL, including national networks like La Opinión, NBC/Telemundo, PBS, and Univision. A third-generation Apostolic Pentecostal, Agredano grew up and was formed in the Apostolic Church, where his family congregated at Templo Emmanuel, pastored by Bishop Rev. Benjamin Cantú in Highland Park, CA. When he was age 11, the Agredano family moved to Huntington Park and congregated at the Apostolic Church pastored by Rev. Hilario Gámez. There, Agredano directed the local children and youth choirs up until and during his attendance at East Los Angeles College. Later, as a transfer student at UC Berkeley, he was a member of the Union City Apostolic Church, pastored by Rev. Adam López, Jr. Agredano, and participated in the initial three productions of NorCal Mass Choir live-recordings, as well as the award-winning production team of “Nuestro Canto,” a history of the Apostolic Church in song. Agredano also attended the Apostolic Church of Oakland under Rev. Art Oceguera, directing the youth, church, and the ladies’ “Dorcas" choirs. Agredano attended Harvard Divinity School, where his advisor and greatest mentor was Rev. Dr. Cornel West. Agredano also joined the Harvard University Kuumba Singers and frequented various Apostolic congregations in the Boston area, such as the United Pentecostal Church (UPCI), Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (PAW), and eventually congregated at Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After coming out, and coming back to California, Agredano founded an online community congregation of LGBTQ+ Apostolics/Pentecostals and attended Founders Metropolitan Community Church Los Angeles (MCC-LA), where he served on the Pentecostal praise team. In Los Angeles, he served on the Azusa Street Centennial Committee. In 2020, he founded Apostolics Pentecostals for President Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris, creating a global platform for discussion of church, race, and politics. Agredano has presented at the Society for Pentecostal Studies and at the National Association for Chicana/Chicano Studies.